Lunenburg man working to free blogger in Kuwait

LUNENBURG -- Secular activists in Massachusetts, many of them former Muslims, have launched a campaign to try to free an Egyptian atheist blogger who was arrested for blasphemy in Kuwait on Dec. 31.

Online friends of Abdul Aziz Mohamed El Baz say the 27-year-old blogger is facing up to five years in prison for his online activities, which include both a written blog and a video discussion panel. Both are in Arabic.

Zachary Bos, of Lunenburg, is the Massachusetts state director for American Atheists and has known Baz online for the past year. He said this is a freedom of speech issue that everyone should be concerned about, not just atheists.

"This is about freedom from reprisal, not secular people against religious people," said Bos.

Supporters of Baz have formed a coalition that includes Muslims and Christians who believe people should be able to express their views openly. Bos and a group of Baz's online friends are trying to attract help from advocacy groups and other organizations.

Aly Aly, of Brockton, who was also born in Egypt, is a member of the Arab Atheist Broadcasting Network, the online video discussion panel Baz appeared on. He said not a day goes by that he does not receive death threats.

"Aziz is not the first person to be locked up on blasphemy charges in Kuwait," said Aly.

Aly compared the situation there with the witch hunts of Europe and Salem, Mass., where people could invent accusations against neighbors and rivals knowing they would be punished.

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In Baz's case, Aly said his friend was critical of Islam in both written and spoken word.

In order to live in Kuwait, Baz had to be under the care of a sponsor. Aly said Baz had a feud with his sponsor and the man turned him in for what the law calls "violation of the sanctity of religion."

"It's pretty easy to prove he blasphemed," said Aly. He said on the show they were critical of Islam, including the treatment of women, the harsh punishments, the history of the religion, the existence of miracles and the Adam and Eve story.

"There's some risk involved when you criticize Islam in Arabic," said Aly. He said he feels safe in America, but the situation is very different for people in other nations.

The Kuwait Embassy in Washington D.C. has not publicly commented on the issue and has no spokesperson able to confirm or deny the details.

Najat Kessler was born in Morocco and now lives on the North Shore and works at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been an online secular activist since 2009 and is a friend of Baz.

She said about two weeks ago she noticed he wasn't updating his blog or Facebook or returning emails. She then learned from a mutual friend about the arrest. She said she and the other organizers of the campaign to free Baz were skeptical until they spoke to his lawyer and had it confirmed from the Egyptian embassy to Kuwait.

"He's a friend of mine and very close to my heart," she said. She said Baz is not facing the death penalty and the charges against him appear to have a maximum sentence of five years, but prison can be brutal in that part of the world.

"You don't know what goes on in these jails. They can do anything to him there," she said. "They can torture him. He could come out as a vegetable."

Kessler said the things Baz wrote on his blog were fairly moderate. The last entry before his arrest asks what the role of religion should be in a society. He argued that there should be a separation of church and state, instead of having an official religion like Kuwait does.

"Secular does not mean banning religion," said Kessler. She said it merely means the government is independent of religion.

"He is a peaceful individual who is only a proponent of the separation of church and state," said Andrew Hall, who is a member of the Brockton Area Atheists. "What he said was not to get religion out of the public square, but to have government not support it." Hall said Baz simply wanted countries like Kuwait to become more like America.

"There's no reason for him to be locked up. Kuwait is an American ally," he added.

Hall said the focus of their informal campaign has been to alert people of Baz's arrest through social media and try to get them to contact their senators and representatives to convince Kuwait to let him go. Hall said he used the telephone because it is more meaningful than an e-mail.

"When you have laws based on an interpretation of a religious text, it can affect you if you are Protestant, if you are Catholic, if you are Hindu," said Hall.

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